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Lot Essay
The heaviness of the face and square jaw line seen on the present figure is characteristic of sculpture dating to the late Tang (AD 618-907) to Liao dynasty (AD 916-1125). See, for example, a marble seated figure of Buddha dated to the late Tang-dynasty in the collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, where the fullness of the face is particularly prominent, illustrated by Denise Patry Leidy and Donna Strahan in Wisdom Embodied: Chinese Buddhist and Daoist Sculpture in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New Haven, 2010, p. 176, no. A28. A Tang dynasty marble figure of Buddha with comparable square-form face and of the same size as the present figure was sold at Christie's, New York, 18 March 2009, lot 359.
See, also, two larger seated figures of Buddha, dated to the Liao dynasty, from the collection of General Munthe, Beijing, illustrated by Osvald Sirén in Chinese Sculpture from the Fifth to the Fourteenth Century, vol. II, pls. 584 A and B. These two Liao dynasty figures display a similar treatment of the elaborate whorl-detailed curls seen on the hair of the present figure.
A stone figure of Amitabha Buddha, dated by inscription to AD 720, with columns carved around the pedestal in a manner similar to the present sculpture was sold at Christie's, New York, 17 March 2017, lot 1018.
See, also, two larger seated figures of Buddha, dated to the Liao dynasty, from the collection of General Munthe, Beijing, illustrated by Osvald Sirén in Chinese Sculpture from the Fifth to the Fourteenth Century, vol. II, pls. 584 A and B. These two Liao dynasty figures display a similar treatment of the elaborate whorl-detailed curls seen on the hair of the present figure.
A stone figure of Amitabha Buddha, dated by inscription to AD 720, with columns carved around the pedestal in a manner similar to the present sculpture was sold at Christie's, New York, 17 March 2017, lot 1018.